The present invention relates to a financial transaction payment method and system utilizing financial transaction cards, such as credit cards and debit cards, and to a financial transaction payment method and system involving installment loans, which are loans in which the loan amount and loan interest are repaid in a predetermined number of periodic payments, usually monthly.
Financial transaction cards have made great gains in the United States as a means to attract financial accounts to financial institutions and, in the case of credit cards, as a medium to create small loans and generate interest income for financial institutions. Nonetheless, the financial transaction card industry is subject to certain well-known problems.
Taking the credit card industry, for example, it is well-known that the financial institutions issuing credit cards must constantly renew their card account base each year. Typically, in fact, a financial institution must increase its credit card account base by 10% to 12% each year to offset voluntary and involuntary card account transfers and closures. To realize these needed gains, financial institutions are constantly mailing credit card offers to consumers. Such offers usually contain incentives such as no annual fees, delayed payments, and favorable annual percentage rates (APR) to attract new cardholders.
Another problem in the credit card industry is related to the unprofitability of carrying certain types of cardholders. The credit card account base of a financial institution is typically characterized as having two types of cardholders: pay-in-full cardholders (those cardholders that pay their statements in full in each billing cycle) and roll-over cardholders (those cardholders that do not pay their statements in full in each billing cycle, but roll over some of their payments to subsequent billing cycles). On average, the typical account base of a financial institution consists of 25% of pay-in-full cardholders and 75% of roll-over cardholders. Currently, the profitability of the account base of a financial institution is almost entirely attributable to the revenue generated from the interest income from the roll-over cardholders. Nonetheless, the pay-in-full cardholders generate about 50% of the sales activity of the account base. Because of the cost of funds and the lack of receipt of annual fees, the pay-in-full cardholders are a great expense for financial institutions.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a financial transaction card method and system that contains a financial feature that is able to attract new cardholders and that can generate added revenue for financial institutions, both from roll-over cardholders and pay-in-full cardholders.
The present invention solves the aforementioned problems by providing a system and method for activating automatically an installment loan based on certain transaction criteria associated with transactions involving a financial transaction card.
Currently, the installment lending market is many times larger than that of the financial transaction card market. Consumers typically use installment loans for paying for such items as travel and large home appliances. Advantageously, by providing a cardholder with the ability to obtain an installment loan using a financial transaction card, a financial institution is able to leverage an existing financial account (the financial transaction card account) to provide another service to the cardholder. In other words, by providing the convenience of obtaining an installment loan through a financial transaction card account, a cardholder is less likely to obtain such a loan from another financial institution.
Because of the size of the installment lending market, it is expected that significant revenue will be generated for a financial institution providing installment loans through financial transaction cards. Moreover, the convenience of obtaining an installment loan through a financial transaction card may also be used as a strong incentive to lure new cardholders to a financial institution and, thus, increase the financial institution""s financial transaction card account base.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of conducting a transaction using a financial transaction card in a financial transaction payment system. The financial transaction payment system includes a processing unit and an application program executing on the processing unit. The financial transaction card has associated therewith a financial account in a financial institution and one or more transaction criteria. The Method includes the step of determining by the application program whether the transaction activates an installment loan on the financial account based on the one or more transaction criteria.
Preferably, the financial account has an associated available installment loan credit amount. The method of the present invention then further includes the step of determining by the application program whether the amount of the transaction is greater than the available installment loan credit amount. In addition, the method may also include the step of decreasing by the application program the available installment loan credit amount by the amount of the transaction if the amount of the transaction is less than or equal to the available installment loan credit amount.
It is also preferred that the financial transaction card has associated therewith a primary financial payment function other than activating an installment loan. For example, the primary financial payment function may be a credit payment function or a debit payment function. In such a case, the method of the present invention also includes the step of processing the transaction by the application program in accordance with the primary financial payment function if the transaction does not activate an installment loan on the financial account.
In accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method of authorizing a transaction between a consumer and a merchant is also provided. The consumer has a financial transaction card issued by an issuing financial institution, the financial transaction card having associated therewith a financial account with the financial institution, one or more transaction criteria, a primary financial payment processing procedure, and an installment loan processing procedure. The method includes the step of processing an authorization request by the application program using the primary financial payment processing procedure or the installment loan processing procedure depending on whether or not the transaction criteria are met.
Preferably, the method further includes the step of requesting authorization by the merchant from a financial transaction card processing entity that is in electronic communication with the issuing financial institution before the processing step. In addition, the method preferably further includes the steps of capturing by the merchant the transaction if an authorization is received in response to the authorization request, and transmitting by the merchant the captured transaction to the financial transaction card processing entity. In addition, the method may also include the step of settling the transaction by the financial transaction card processing entity with the merchant and the financial institution.
In accordance with yet another preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a method of setting up an account associated with a financial transaction card of a consumer, which may be used to activate one or more installment loans for the payment of one or more transactions. The method is used in connection with a financial transaction payment system that includes a processing unit, an application program for execution on the processing unit, and a memory unit coupled to the processing unit. The method includes the steps of storing by the application program in the memory unit a credit limit for the one or more installment loans that may be activated with the financial transaction card, and storing by the application program in the memory unit one or more activation criteria for the one or more installment loans that may be activated with the financial transaction card. The activation criteria may include the type of a transaction, the amount of a transaction, and the merchant classification code associated with a merchant involved in a transaction.
Preferably the method further includes the step of storing by the application program in the memory unit payment terms for the one or more installment loans that may be activated with the financial transaction card. The method may further include the step of storing by the application program in the memory unit an available credit amount for the one or more installment loans that may be activated with the financial transaction card.
In accordance with yet another preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of preparing a statement for transactions conducted using a financial transaction card and stored in the memory unit of a financial transaction processing system, as described above. Each transaction is associated with either a primary financial payment procedure or an installment loan payment procedure. The method includes the steps of: (a) determining by the application program the totals of the transactions associated with the primary financial payment procedure; (b) determining by the application program the totals of the transactions associated with the installment loan payment procedure; and (c) printing by the application program the totals of the transactions associated with the primary financial payment procedure and the totals of the transactions associated with the installment loan payment procedure on the statement.
In accordance with yet another preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of processing a payment for a financial transaction card account, the financial transaction card account having an associated installment loan balance and an associated credit balance. The method includes the steps of determining by the application program whether the payment is less than the installment loan balance, and processing by the application program a cash advance against the credit balance equal to the difference between the payment and the installment loan balance, if the payment is less than the installment loan balance.
In accordance with yet another preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a financial transaction payment system for processing a transaction conducted using a financial transaction card. The financial transaction card has associated therewith a financial account with a financial institution and one or more transaction criteria. The financial transaction payment system includes a processing unit; an application program for execution on the processing unit; and means for determining by the application program whether the transaction activates an installment loan on the financial account based on the one or more transaction criteria.